



Ilibrariofcongrt^ssJ 

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I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | | 



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A POEM. 



By a. D. T. W. 




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AND THE GATHERING TOGETHER OF THE WATERS HE CALLED SEAS; AND GOD SAW 
THAT IT M'AS GOOD." 



BOSTON: 

CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, 

117, Washington Street. 

1857. 



T$3 2^(\ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, 

In the Clerk's OflSce of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



BOSTON: 
PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 

No. 22, School Street. 



NOTE. 



The concluding portion of this Poem was written 
while tidings were being received of the successful 
progress of the Atlantic Telegraph fleet ; and, although 
the great enterprise is suspended for a time, the Author 
believes it is not anticipating too strongly to allow the 
lines to stand as they were written. 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 



Athwart the globe there lay two giants chained 
Pillowed in mighty icebergs ; stretching wide 

Their Titan limbs, river and mountain veined, 
Down, through eternal summer, to the tide 
Whose stormy surges lash the Antarctic Pole. 
Around and underneath, the eternal roll 

Of floods that earlier to being sprung, 
And into order all their torrents wheeled 
To the great measure that majestic pealed 

When the high stars their morning anthem sung. 



b FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Separate they lay, and looked on separate skies ; 

Where the Sun built in turn his burnished throne, 
And Night came watching with her golden' eyes, 

Or the fair Moon rode royally alone. 
The solitary Continents ! that stirred 

Each with its own new promises of life, 
Forth starting at the summons of a Word 

Calm spoken over the chaotic strife ; 
Till, last of all, to crown the waiting earth, 

And bear the eternal sceptre of control, 
God breathed upon the imperial human birth. 

And Man became at once a living Soul ! 

Yet into mysteries born, — the heir of wealth 
Locked from possession, sealed with secrecy, 

Till stalwart Toil, and Time with step of stealth, 
Break the strong spell, and bring the master- 
key, — 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 7 

Untitled, unproclaimed, the monarch waits 
At the barred portal of his palace gates. 

So the brave impulse of true royalty 

Quickens within him to arise and strive ; 
Rich elements of life around him lie. 

Wherein the soul that laboreth may live ; 
His lifted brow grows glorious with thought. 

His right arm restless with instinctive skill ; 
Heaven's own high inspiration he hath caught. 

And learns to work its delegated will. 

Then, over the unmeasured, wild extents 

Of the great, forest-bearded continents. 

Rose human homes ; the separate worlds grew 

fair. 
And all life's harmonies were gathering there. 



8 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Apart, unconscious each of each, they grew ; 
Save his own kindred, man no kindred knew ; 
But God o'erlooked them from His heaven above, 
And gathered all souls in His glance of love. 
So clustering stars along the ether sleep, — 
Islands of light, out-glimmering o'er the deep, — 
"While each fair system, with its little sun. 
Is lit with radiance from the Central One. 

Not yet the darker age of wrong and strife 
Disturbs the peaceful charms of early life ; 
Not yet has wild Ambition fired the breast. 
Or the world's riches proved the world's unrest. 
Bound by sweet instincts to his place of birth, 
Man dreams not yet of wandering o'er the 

earth. 
Mysterious mountains, reaching to the sky, 
Or the broad river's sweeping boundary ; 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 9 

More than all else, the ever-circling Sea, 

Girding the shore in crested majesty ; 

With their stern ramparts, or their restless 

roll. 
Limit his enterprise, his steps control. 

Perhaps the savage, as he stood beside 
Some river in the sunlight rippling wide. 
Watched the light, floating leaves, that on its 

breast, 
Dropt from their stems, lay in a dreamy rest ; 
Or a chance-broken bough went speeding by, 
And caught his curious, ever-asking eye : 
Then quickly thought to useful purpose grew, 
And Art's first triumph was the frail canoe. 

Then, as glad Morning sprang to greet the world 
With crimson banners o'er the hills unfurled. 



10 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

And ■wood and field and lake and stream were rife 

With the fresh impulses of busy life, 

Over the waters, glancing in the ray 

Of ruddy dawn, the fisher sped away ; 

Or when the day-god sat upon his throne 

High in mid heaven, refulgent and alone, 

Idly he floated in some shady nook. 

And, like a cradled child, his slumber took ; 

Or when Night's myriad stars were shining 

down, 
Tipping each wavelet with a silver crown. 
O'er them he gazed afar, when day was done, 
And dreamed of lands toward the setting sun. 

Simple although his earlier thoughts might be, 
Born to investigate, man could not see 
The restless current ever hastening by, 
Nor ask the eternal questions, Whither ? why ? 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 11 

From out his mountain home, along the streams 
That wander ocean-ward, between fair shores 

Shut in like an enchanted land of dreams. 
Spell-drawn and wondering, he at length ex- 
plores. 

And so he learned he was not born alone ; 
Earth's wondrous circuit was not all his own. 
On broad, bright plains, or in green valleys 

deep. 
Where sunshine pours, or mountain shadows 

sleep ; 
In the warm wood, or on the breezy hill, 
Or by the lake-shore beautiful and still ; 
Lay other scenes, like his own birthplace, fair, 
And other homes, as peaceful, nestled there. 
He found his kindred, — hailed his brother man, 
And earth's great, gladdening intercourse began. 



12 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

On, down and down, in time, they track the 
tide. 

That swells its gathering current strong and 
free. 
Calling in tributes upon either side. 

And leaping in its growth rejoicingly, 
Till a fair river, perfected at length. 

Moving with slow, imperial dignity. 
And calm, majestic, like a royal bride. 
With all her treasure and her conscious strength, 

Proudly bestows herself upon the Sea ! 

How shall pen picture thee, thou lonely Sea, 

Awful in thine untracked immensity ? 

The mountain stream, — the river, — types of 

Time, 
Busy and brief, they seem ; but thou, sublime. 
Giving and gathering, art Eternity ! 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 18 

Baffled and wondering, on thy solemn shore, 
Man, who had learned, exulting, to explore 
Half his great heritage, stands helpless now, 
With half his kinghood fading from his brow. 
How sweeps before him, with its fringes 

white. 
Thy royal ermine, like a hem of light ; 
While on a sapphire throne thou sit'st afar, 
And wearest in thy crown the evening star ! 

Where the red sun his tropic radiance pours, 
Calm, desolate, between far Indian shores, 
Outstretched, unbroken, thy lone waters lie, 
And mirror back the splendors of the sky ; 
Or to earth's ends their mighty torrents roll, 
And tower in frigid grandeur at the pole ; 
Rearing their icy pinnacles on high. 
Till the light shivers as it glances by, 



14 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

And upward to the zenith shoots and streams, 
Making the mid earth rosy with its gleams ! 

Here a wild tempest visits thee with madness ; 
There the bright heavens bend over thee in 

gladness ; 
Here thou still bearest thy primeval face, 
And imagest to thought unpeopled space ; 
There myriad isles lie green upon thy breast. 
Like emeralds that adorn thy regal vest ; 
"Worn there unseen, thy fairest kingly state 
Put on where none may come, to wonder or to 

wait. 

Oh, solitary wert thou. Ocean, then ! 
A pathless void, for ages, unto men ; 
Only, where even thy farthest billows rolled, 
God's spirit moved upon thee, as of old ! 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 15 

And secret wert thou. Ocean ! Clime to clime 
Sent, by thy wave that visited each, no 
word; 

Thy patient greatness left its tale to time ; 
And the mysterious anthem that was heard 

Uprising from thy depths in melody, 

Was wondrous ; but it was not sung of thee ! 

Yes, thou art mighty ! Beautiful, sublime, 
Lone, secret, awful ; and, throughout all time, 
O'er-brooded by the Spirit of Strength, great 
Sea! 
Yet there's a deep profounder still than thine, 

Stirred by the selfsame Spirit, inwardly, 
And so created in the Might Divine 

That it shall grow at last to conquer even 
thee ! 



16 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

A thought takes form in yonder fragile boat, 

That seemeth but a plaything, set afloat 

To drift along the current helplessly ; 

A thought that is -akin to Deity ; 

A faint, far echo of the Eternal Breath, 

Whose spoken Word all nature fashioneth ! 

It tells of mighty things that are to be ; 
Mutely it utters a great prophecy ; 
Like all the deep portents of life, unread, 
Veiling a hope too vast to be interpreted. 

Soon the fair harbors that indent the shore 
Sound with the dip of many a plashing oar ; 
And, from out-reaching promontories there, 
Full oft a fairy skiff will even dare 
Cross to the isles that delicately lie 
Dotting the deep, like clouds upon the sky ; 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 17 

Or down from point to point, from bay to bay, 
Bolder at every step, they find their way, 
Learning the features of earth's giant face, 
In stern, huge profile o'er the waters traced. 
Still, ever and beyond, the Ocean waste 

Keeps its own dim, eternal secrecy ; 
While to and fro, along its verge, they haste, 

Children of Time, who gaze with ignorant 
eye, 

Out from its shore, on Life's vague mystery. 

But Earth hath waters deep within the land ; - 
Fair, sheltered seas, upon whose either side 

Her towering heights like princely guardians 
stand. 
As proud to lend protection to the tide. 

Wearied with solitary grandeur. Ocean seems 
Glad to creep in among her borders calm, 

2 



18 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

And give himself away to gentler dreams, ' 

Encircled by her loving mother-arm. 

Here first, across the ever-beckoning wave, 
The Old -World tribes a nearer greeting gave ; 
Finding full soon their easiest path to be 
That starlit course along the summer sea. 

Lands of the East, — first visited with light ! 
How swift ye wakened from the primal night, 
As the new Age dawned glorious on the world ! 
Commerce her broad, white pinions slow unfurled, 
And the fair barge lay, laden deep with treasure, 
Or floated, banner-decked, to strains of pleasure. 
Where once the scattered tents and hamlets stood 
Cities began to shine across the flood ; 
And man, grown daring, builded, side by side 
With mountain-peaks, his monuments of pride. 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 19 

'['he pillared palace and the templed shrine 
Speak earthly power, or reverence the Divine ; 
Fair grow the homes where living footsteps tread. 
And mighty tombs are fashioned for the dead ; 
A nation worketh as a single man, 
While monarchs the stupendous labor plan ; 
Expanding Thought each grosser thing controls. 
And nature bends before her kingly souls ! 

Still, as with pyramid and sculptured stone 
The land grows glorious, — distant and alone. 
Biding thy time, in old serenity, 
As ere they counted time, thou liest, unknown 

Sea! 
Like a high soul, that feels itself so great, 
It can, with an untroubled courage, wait 
Hour and event, that surely come at last, 
Since, in God's certain order, none is overpast. 



20 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Over the glory of this mortal life 
Still burst its passion-clouds, and storms of strife ; 
And still, as earth's majestic Babels rise, 
Seeming as just about to touch the skies, — 
Her art, her power, her wondrous enterprise, — 
Then ever doth the old, conflicting din 
Of differing interests rush impetuous in ; 
And so, as once on ancient Shinar's plain, 
Her proudest triumphs fall to dust again, 
And timid Peace escapes, on eager wings, 
From out the ruin of her fairest things. 
Hell's watching fiends, with glaring malice, see 
On the bright earth a coming jubilee ; 
Breathe a dark curse ; and, like a tempest hurled, 
The age of conflict rushes on the world ! 

Untraversed Ocean ! rest thee patient still ; 
And let the storm-lashed breakers rage at will 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 21 

Along thy margin. Desolate as thou art, 

Thou hast thy work, — to keep for God, apart, 

A place of peace amid all earthly strife, 

Unfevered by the restlessness of life. 

The shouting, and the hoof-tramp, and the roar 

Of thousand-voiced contention, from the shore, 

Dieth along thy watery solitude. 

Where the One Presence evermore doth brood. 

And the One Voice still uttereth, " It is good ! " 

A barrier thou art, — a mystery ; 

So, through long ages, rest thee willingly ; 

And let thy floods, obedient, still divide 

The lands of earth upon their either side. 

With God there is no waste, no vacancy ; 

Nothing is lonely, though it look to be ; 

On the far deep no billow rolls unseen 

Or purposeless, the sundered shores between : 



22 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Each liath its place, its order, and its end. 

And toward one grand accomplishment doth tend. 

Creation's mighty, measured harmony 

Doth never halt, doth ne'er move hastily : 

Its pauses, to the Ever-listening, seem 

Parts fit, essential to the perfect theme. 

As. down the endless depths of space and time 

The great Recital rolls in chant sublime. 

A thousand years, as even a single day. 
Before the Great White Throne shall glide away 
Like morning mists across the mountain's brow, 
And thy dim future. Ocean, is thy glorious Now ! 

A white sail glitters on thine eastern verge, 
Like a fair planet rising o'er the surge : 
Westward, like that of orbs that gem the skies, 
Its steady course along thy bosom lies. 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 23 

The thought hath grown ! Within the finite mind. 
The germ by Infinite Intellect enshrined, 
And ever striving outward, comes at length, 
As in a full maturity of strength, 
To claim the heirship of its heavenly birth. 
And cope with all the mysteries of earth ! 

Say, didst thou feel the conqueror's grasp was on 
thee. 
And bow thy majesty of crested seas 
Before the daring of the Genoese, 
As, where heaven's clouds were wont to fleck 
thee only. 
He boldly set his canvas to the breeze ? 

Thine hour was come ! Trackless as thou might'st 

seem. 
And wild and fruitless the adventurer's dream, 



24 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

A path invisible across thee lay, 
Where God's own hand had marked a sure high- 
way. 
As once to Israel the Eed-Sea wave, 
Parting at either side, a passage gave ; 
So did thy billows yield their wilder will, 
Owning the rod of might that overhung them 
still. 

Through the stern midnight ; in the tropic 

blaze ; 
Where the quick gloom shuts out the languid 

days; 
Where the down-dropping storm, with sudden 

wrath. 
Threatens in thunder on the forward path ; 
Where, stretching endless to his eager eyes. 
Still to the west' the water meets the skies. 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 25 

And, if lie backward glance, outwideneth ever, 
Heart from far home more hopelessly to sever ; 
Still the brave heart keeps on, in courage strong, 
Bearing, in faith unwavering and long, 
Its own bright beacon, heaven-lit, that shall lead 
A whole world after, by the glory of its deed ! 

More awful, more mysterious, day by day, 
Grew to his thought the lone and watery way. 
What if no limit bound the terrible Sea ; 

If, in his eager venturing, he hath stept _ 
Forth from the worl'd of sure reality 

Into the realm where once all nature slept, — 
Dim, vague, perpetual chaos ; if it be 

His fearful, self-sought doom to wander there 
Unto and after death, eternally ? 

Or, if an end come, the dread how, and 
where ? 



26 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Whither do these incessant torrents sweep ? 

Touch they indeed on some calm western 
shore ? 
Or, down the face of one tremendous steep, 

Back into nothingness their cataracts pour ? 

Only the lights of heaven, with glorious cheer, 
Come with their olden look to greet him here ; 
As through the doubtful night they keep their 

way, 
Or, bearing up the east the punctual day, 
Strides the great Sun with giant limbs of fire, 
AYhom the long march of ages may not tire. 
These glance familiar down upon the foam. 
As long ago among the orange-groves of home. 

Fresh strength and promise to his soul are born 
With the glad ray of each new rising morn : 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 27 

Night after night he feels it fail away, 
As the insatiate deep drinks down the day : 
So, measured by his courage and his doubt. 
The weary lapsing time still lengthens out. 
Till, with one dawn, there comes an hour of 

gladness, 
That swells the pulse of joy almost to madness. 

The sun, that yesternight behind the wave 
Sank, and at parting no new signal gave. 
Sends his first early glimmering like a smile 

Athwart the dusk, — hope lightening on de- 
spair, — 
And, lo ! the slant beam toucheth a gray isle. 

That, all the dim night thro', lay glooming there ! 

With heart outbursting in its praise to Heaven, 
With eager impulse, as though wings were given, 



28 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Onward he speeds, while o'er his conquering way, 
High, as in triumph, glows the exultant Day, 
Till he leaps forth upon the waiting shore, 
And plants the holy Cross on Salvador ! 

The bridle is across thy mane, thou Sea ! 

One hand, unfaltering, bore it boldly o'er : 
Henceforth the wide world of humanity 

Shall make thee its great messenger for ever- 
more ! 

East unto west along thy mighty track 
Shall send her greeting : gloriously, back 
The wild, rich West quick answereth again. 
Till, over thy once lonely water-plain. 
Nation to nation holdeth out the hand. 
And earth's great brotherhoods in one vast circle 
stand ! 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 29 

Majestically proud thy fleets shall grow, 
Spreading their sails like sea-birds' plumes of 

snow ; 
Bearing rich freightage forth from clime to clime ; 
Shortening wide space, — outspeeding busy time ; 
Seeking new shores, and counting every isle 
That in its beauty makes thy face to smile ; 
Floating amid thy palace wonders, where 
Thine ice-built domes rise royally in air. 
As fearless spirits, poised on mighty wings, 
Roaming amid all strange and glorious things. 

Swift centuries, since that prophetic day, 

Have, on huge world-wheels, rolled their steady 

way; 
And now, " Behold the ships ! " No wandering 

breeze 
That ruffles with its breath remotest seas. 



80 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

But, as it passeth, swells some waiting sail, 
That makes a servant of the wayward gale ! 
Where once the savage in rude wonder gazed 
Out from the shore, bewildered and amazed. 
And, in the simpleness of childhood, deemed 
Earth had its ending where thy limit seemed, 
The princely son of commerce standeth now, 
Power in his hand, and thought upon hi^ 

brow, — 
The sceptre and the, crown of sovereign soul, — 
As thy submissive waters inward roll. 
To watch, as for the rising of a star. 
The coming of his argosies from far ! 

Up from thine edge no hoary forests rise. 
But the proud city-spires salute the skies ; 
Halls, where the gathered wisdom of the land 
Deliberates its method of command ; 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. O 

Homes, whose calm luxury is still supplied 
By those rich barks incoming o'er the tide, — 
The tide, whose very boundaries Art hath laid. 
And, by strong ramparts, in safe moorings staid. 

No unknown, perilous venture waits thee now, 
Thou stately ship, with outward pointing prow, 
As forth thou glidest, fearless and alone, 
And sit'st the ocean as a queen her throne ! 
Decked in thy stainless robes, and daintily 
Upborne by the right loyal, chivalrous sea, 
Thou choosest thine own path, and walkest still 
The wild waves at thine own majestic will ! 

Almost, beholding thee, we dare to say 
Thou speedest forth upon a certain way : 
The billow bears an almost beaten track 
For thine outgoing and thy coming back : 



32 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Like pathways interlacing o'er a plain, 
We seem to see, across the measured main, 
Full many a furrowed wake, from shore to shore. 
Marked by thy peers a thousand times before ! 

Thy graceful bow with onward impulse springs ; 
And, as a racer from his nostril flings 
The fretted foam, so dost thou dash away. 
In proud impatience, the upglancing spray ; 
While, in proportion grand, along the tide 
Stretcheth the fair, curved outline of thy side. 
Till the far stern, that homeward looketh ever, 
Seems loitering, as loath from shore to sever ! 

Thy swift keel doth the startled seas divide, 
That part in foam, and, awe-struck, fall aside ; 
Then, meeting, each to each their wonder sing 
At the quick vision of the glorious thing : 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. oB 

So crowds give way before a regal car, 
To follow it with gaze and shout afar ! 

Thy lofty masts, uprising, cleave the cloud, 
And fork the tongues of winds that clamor loud, 
Till shrill and whistling grows their altered cry 
Among thy cordage as thou sweepest by : 
Or with an iron column reared in air. 
Queen of the elements, dost proudly dare 
Bind the red fire as thy submissive slave. 
To help thee wholly subjugate the wave : 
Till the young moon that saw thee leave the shore. 
Waxed to the full, doth safely light thee o'er ; 
And, while her lessening glories gradual wane, 
Thou on thine ocean-path art home again ! 

Already hast thou learned, in conquering pride, 
To scorn the tame and easy path that lies 



34 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Marked sure and straight across the vanquished 
deep ; 
And thou must find a way from side to side 
Under the midnight of the Arctic skies ; 
Must seek new perils where the glittering 
steep 
Of frowning ice-cliffs guard, as with a spell, 
Old Ocean's last and strongest citadel. 

Out from the glowing Summer, with her breath 

Warm in its parting kisses on his brow, 
Up toward the grim and wintry realm of Death, 

The undaunted sailor turns his steady prow. 
And, never glancing backward, goeth straight 

From watching eyes, to vanish in the gloom, 
That, like a curtain of impending fate. 

Hangs round the icy portals of his tomb. 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 35 

To penetrate the fastness of the Pole, — 

To wrest earth's mighty secret from her grasp, — 
To find the magic of the charm^that holds 

All things within its talismanic clasp ; 
That bids, with mystic signal, silently, 

The little needle, like a hopeless slave, 
Far off upon the illimitable Sea, 

Turn ever to the North along the wave ; 
This, like some quest of ancient chivalry, 

Beckoneth brave spirits, luring them afar, 
And bindeth them in that enchanted sea. 

Where, with cold, pitiless light, the Northern 
Star, 
That guided them, like Hope, across the waves. 
Alone looks down upon their desolate graves. 

Yet is all lost that so hath passed from sight ? 
Has there nought come of it but baffled pride, 



36 • FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

And shattered wrecks, that loom up through tlie 
night, 

Moored helpless to the icj mountain-side ? 
Oh, in that day when the deep, sounding sea 

Shall bear its witness, and yield up its dead, 
What deeds, wherein men's souls grew gloriously. 

Shall in Heaven's record by the world be read : 
Since from the ruin even now a word 

Sometimes returneth, telling earth a tale 
Whose nobleness her whole, wide heart hath 
stirred, 

And in whose light her easier glories pale ! 



And thou, peerless soul ! that didst fulfil 
A work on earth most like thy Saviour's own, 
Though thy freed spirit now beside the Throne 

Heareth His high " Well done" echoed in heaven. 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 37 

Hearts, to whom thine such generous glow hath 
given, 
Must follow thee with their poor plaudit still. 

Freely, like thy great Master, didst thou go 

To seek and save the wandering and the lost ; 

Counting thy noble life at little cost, — 
Measuring heart-warmth against the Polar snow ; 

Bearing eternal summer of great love. 
High hope, and heavenly patience, with thee, so 

As, o'er that mystic realm of storm and frost, 
The airs of Paradise do seem to blow. 

And its deep night take radiance from above. 

How doth the spirit show its royalty. 
And walk majestic over mortal pain. 

In these great deeds that have been done of thee I 
Methinks those ice-towers of the Arctic main, 



38 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Looking so lone, were thronged invisibly 

With heaven's admiring angels, thee attending ! 

Didst thou not catch some glimpses of their wings, 

Gleaming upon thee, like strange, beautiful things, 

With the wild flashes of the Aurora blending ? 

Ah, surely once an angel brought thee aid ! 
In the blind midnight, when thy lamp had failed 

thee, — 
When tempest, frost, and gloom at once assailed 

thee. 
Threatening thy noble courage with despair, — 
Then that strange glory round thy fingers played : 
'Twas heaven's own light that flashed out visi- 
bly there ! 

Thou wast the strength of others, — God was thine ; 
Thou gavest, — it was given unto thee ; 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 39 

And, by the promise of that holy line, 

Shall yet a thousand-fold the rendering be. 
Thy bark of Faith, ice-shattered, tempest-driven, 
Lies moored at last in the calm River of Life ; 
And, from " green pastures and still streams " of 
heaven. 
Thou smilest back upon thy mortal strife. 
Earth can return thee nothing but her honor : 
She hangs a deathless garland on thy name. 
Proud that thy princely foot hath been upon her, 

From Arctic glacier to her belt of flame ! 
And each faint soul that learns thy matchless 
story, — 
Sees the stern pathway that thy steps have 
trod, — 
Shall, by the far reflection of thy glory, 

Read a new gospel of great cheer from God ! 



40 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Once more a white amazement on the Deep 
Gathers its great waves whisperingly. Again 
A human might is measured with the main. 
Out from the East, with cahn, imperial sweep, 
And conscious honor seated on their helms, 
Deputed envoys of earth's mightiest realms, 
The great leviathans of war, — with breath 
Subdued, and the grim mouths that utter 

death 
All sealed and silent, — their fierce armament 
Laid by for a more glorious intent, — 
Walk westward o'er the waters. As they go 
With their majestic mien, restrained and slow. 
They silently drop down into the wave, 
Like a long burial in a boundless grave. 
Some strange, dark burden, that the hungry 

Sea 
Receives into its bosom wonderingly. 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 41 

'Tis the last fetter on the giant laid ; 

And he lies bound ! The slender cable, swayed 

Through drifting currents down to endless 
calms, 
Stretcheth between the nations, — holding thee. 
With all thy pride and might, thou terrible Sea ! 

In the strong clasp of their united arms ; 
While the electric life-pulse, surely beating 
From shore to shore, speaks their eternal meet- 
ing ! 

There, in the dim abyss of secrecy. 
That gathers down into its silent caves 

The awful wealth of its vast treasury, 

Plundered for ages by the ravenous waves ; 

Where the pale skeletons of shipwrecked men 
Drift slowly by, and great ships overhead 

Sail heedless, — shall come quivering again, 



42 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Along the quick nerve of that wondrous chain, 
Thoughts of the living down among the dead ! 

Men shall stand clustering upon the verge 

Of the blank waters, listening intent 
For voices, that, uprising through the surge, 

Bear tidings of another continent ! 
The news that stirs the olden world to-day 

Shall wings of speed from the forked lightning 
borrow, 
And, darting on its momentary way, 

Spread through the younger hemisphere to- 
morrow ! 
Oh, man should tremble at the marvellous might 

So to his limitless presumption given. 
As he had stretched his hands out through the 
night, 

And laid his grasp upon the stars of heaven ! 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS., 43 

What words shall first around the girdled earth 

Thrill like a prophecy ? Shall mortals dare 
Echo the shout that, at Immanuers birth, 

Proclaimed God's own great Message on the air ; 
When angels, telegraphed from sphere to sphere, 

Till down from heaven to earth the tidings flew, 
And men, with joy that trembled through their 
fear, 

The awful Advent of Messiah knew ? 

Oh, breathe them not like sacrilegious vows. 

To rise in judgment in the after-years, 
And brand a retribution on the brows 

That steep themselves in perjury and tears ! 
But speak it as a prayer ! And may our God 

Have mercy on the nations : o'er the sea 
Of human strife and passion stretch the rod 

That bids it be at peace eternally : 



44 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

And, while the chartered lightning to and fro 
Beareth the kindly messages of men, 

May Bethlehem's legions, gathering below, 
Chant His great benison o'er the earth again ! 



Ocean ! that wearest yet upon thy brow 

Thine olden glory, though man's daring hand 
Hath laid thereon the touch of his command. 
One of Time's mighty parables art thou. 
Through thee a Spirit speaks ! The selfsame Word 
That once above the ancient chaos stirred, 
Still dwelleth, as it then took form, in thee, 
First type and teaching of eternity ! 

Like earth's great continents, that separate stand, 
With thine unmeasured gulfs on either hand, 
So the two spheres of our existence lie, 
Boimded and severed by infinity. 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 45 

The rough, dark shore, that limits visible things, 

Yields place unto a rarer element, 
Yet o'er the intangible a shadow flings. 

Till daily fact and spirit-vision, blent. 
Meet, as the ocean glideth to the strand 
From depths afar, immeasurable and grand ! 

Touching, like thy far wave, all beautiful 

things ; 
Linking strange shores with mutual visitings ; 
Breathing a mystic measure as it rolls 
Earthward from some remoter land of souls ; 
Bidding the thought to pause, unknowing why. 
And hearken in a hushed solemnity ; 
Circling all being with its mighty deeps, 
As round the globe the tireless ocean sweeps : — 
Out from Life's borders to the Eternal Throne, 
The ocean of the infinite Unknown, 



46 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

From strands of time, by time encompassed never, 
Stretchetli away in mystery for ever ! 

As man, first wakening in his palace-home, 

Knows not the grandeur of his heritage, 
Sees not the glory of the things to come. 

Till the slow progress of the lengthened Age 
Bring forth the great Householder's ancient trea- 
sure, 
Stored for His child, to serve his need and plea- 
sure ; 
So, where the inner realm awaits her sway, , 

Mind to her final might ariseth slowly, 
And patiently must work her own long way 

Up among all things beautiful and holy. 

Like inland waters sheltered from the main, 
Yet from its mighty reservoir supplied, 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 47 

And through far outlets rendering back again 
To its great source, at last, the wandering tide ; 

The Life Eternal still some channel findeth 
Where man may dare to launch his thought 
abroad, 

And close beside his daily pathway windeth, 
To lead his longing out toward his God ! 

Yet, like thine. Ocean ! its far fountains sleep, 
Where no mad storms of earthly passion sweep : 
Alone with God, beneath His arm of power. 
Lie they restrained, and waiting for their hour. 
And man stands yearning on the misty shore. 

Helplessly stretching his imploring hands, 
And dimly gazing the broad waters o'er, 

Following the sunshine to the fairer lands ; 
Till his far-searching thought, that would be bold 
To grasp at that no mortal mind may hold, 



48 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

Would trace earth's knowledge beyond earthly 

ken, 
Finds itself sternly bidden back again. 

What angel form, with wings of grace unfurled, 
O'er the vague deep shall lead a wondering world ? 
Shall brave the scorn, the peril, and the dread. 
With God's sure love bright only overhead, 
Lighting his way as stars illume the sea. 
And bear earth's struggling hope to immortality ? 

Star of the^ast ! that crowned the natal hour 
Of that majestic and mysterious Life 

Where met man's weakness and God's mighty 
power. 
Till a calm glory grew from out the strife, 

And o'er the Chosen and Anointed brow 

Resteth a sign perpetual, — answer thou ! 



FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 49 

Awful infinitude ! outstretched between 
Man's lower home and the bright spheres un- 
seen ; 
One hath passed over thee ! From heights sub- 
lime 

Across the seas He so triumphant trod, 
He beckoneth our thought through mists of 
time, 

And bids it, reverent, stand before its God ! 
Ay, and a chain, sure fastened to His throne. 

He reacheth downward tf) our earthly sihore. 
To bind all souls henceforward to His own, 

And thrill with holy thought for evermore I 
Along its line tliere quivereth to the ear 
The harmony of that celestial sphere ; 
And thus an answering anthem doth arise 
Up from glad earth, and echoeth in the skies : — 

4 



50 FOOTSTEPS ON THE SEAS. 

None are divided, Lord, who dwell in Thee ! 

Each thought of love vibrates Infinity : 

Thou art with all, through whom, though worlds 

should sever. 
Thy children may commune, in joy, for ever ! 



